And if you want to refer to another user home directory you can use ~user, as in ls -l ~enzotib/Documents/.
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enzotibDec 4 '11 at 20:05

2

Actually, ~ is the shorthand for current user's home folder :)
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heartsmagicDec 4 '11 at 20:17

1

I did not say invalid :) Generally we see ~ instead of ~/, since / is not necessary there.
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heartsmagicDec 4 '11 at 20:47

8

This is only usually correct, but not technically correct. ~ actually expands to the value of the environment variable HOME. If you change the value of HOME, ~ will also no longer point to that user's home directory.
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kojiroDec 5 '11 at 2:41